The Family of Charles Hatten and Caroline Matilda Baker

St. John's Church, Bodle Street Green, Herstmonceux, East Sussex, where Charles William Hatten was vicar from 1878 until around 1910 (picture from A Church Near You web-site)

 The purpose of this small web-site is to share the family pictures I've inherited myself or received from other members of my extended family. I still need information on many of the people pictured. For my complete family tree, see here.

[Up] [Family of William Green Hatten and Sarah Anne Turner Day] [Family of George Nelson Hatten and Harriet Griffin Blomfield] [Family of Robert Charles Hatten and Mary Nunn Bishop] [Family of Rev. Charles William Hatten and Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne] [Cooper Family]

Revised: 17 December, 2023

Charles William Hatten of Suffolk and the India Connection

My maternal grandmother, Mabel Elizabeth Hatten (1880-1950) was born in Haughley in Suffolk in what was then a wealthy farming family. Her father was William Hatten of Great Finborough (1844-1907), and his cousin, Charles William Hatten (1838-1918), also born in Great Finborough, was a Church of England vicar who spent time in India in the 1860s and married there.

The Rev. Charles William Hatten, MA (Cantab), born in 1838,  was the son of Charles Hatten (1805-64) and Caroline Matilda Baker (1811-69). The elder Charles was the younger brother of William Hatten’s father George Hatten (1802-78), my great-great grandfather.

The Summer 2023 issue of "Suffolk Roots" is about the railways in Suffolk and reports a meeting held in Stowmarket on 11 Nov 1844. This meeting was chaired by Sir A R Henniker, and attendees included Mr J C Cobbold, Mr J A Ransome, and Mr J Footman. After the meeting a statement was issued:

EASTERN UNION EXTENSION RAILWAY FROM IPSWICH TO NORWICH AND BURY ST EDMUNDS THROUGH STOWMARKET

We the undersigned, being Inhabitants of the Town and Neighbourhood of Stowmarket in the County of Suffolk, do hereby give our assent, and our undivided support, to the Eastern Union Extension Railway, as being well calculated to preserve and promote the convenience and Trading Interests of Stowmarket, and the Agricultural Interests of the District, and at the same time presents every prospect of certain advantages.

Among the signatories was "Charles Hatten, Farmer, Finborough", the father of Rev. Charles.

Rev. Charles went to Bengal, India after graduating from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, and there became Principal of the prestigious La Martinière College, Calcutta. One of La Martinière College's old boys, A. W. Wilson, went to Cambridge University in 1855 and became a fellow and tutor at Caius College, where Charles was one of his students.

Charles' record in the Caius College Cambridge Matriculation Book 1833-1870 records that he paid 3s 4d on 29 May 1858 (see photograph above left). His examination record is also in the Caius College Cambridge Praelector’s Book 1853-98 which shows that he matriculated on 9 Nov 1858 (see photograph above right). Students were not allowed to matriculate until they had passed the previous examination, so perhaps his time between May and November was spent doing just that.  Sadly, students from this time left relatively little trace of their activities and the college does not have any photographs. However, Charles was at the college at the time when John Venn was a fellow; he arrived the year after Venn graduated.

La Martinière College was founded from a provision in the will of one Major General Claude Martin, a Frenchman from Lyons, who came to India when he was seventeen, and died in 1800. Because of a dispute over the will, the school was not founded until 1836. The school, which educates both boys and girls, is still going today. A student of La Martinière, Dominic Sampson (1858-1867) quoted in an article in “The Times of India” in 1936 about the centenary of the school, recalled the rough atmosphere of the school in 1858 “The school at that time, and for long after until Mr. Hatten’s principalship, was more like a training school for prize fighters than an ordinary academy"! So it appears Charles had a very positive effect on the school and the La Martinière “Chronicle” wrote in 1934: “Mr. C. W. Hatten, B. A., Caius College, Cambridge, succeeded Mr. Ewbank in December, 1862. In this year, on the recommendation of Mr. Ewbank, the Governors consented with considerable reluctance to the discontinuance of Greek as part of the ordinary curriculum of the School. It was hoped that the result would be a rise of standard in other subjects. La Martinière thus became what is called a modern school. In 1866 Mr. Hatten returned to England.”

His stay was certainly eventful. A former pupil, also quoted in “The Times of India” 1936 article, wrote “On the 5th October,1864, there occurred one of the most disastrous cyclones that Calcutta has ever experienced. For three days it rained in torrents, almost without intermission. Then followed the tornado, which levelled every tree in the compound except the once prolific mango tree, which still stands at the south corner of the main building. The dormitories were flooded, every pane of glass in the building was smashed; several windows were wrenched off their hinges; and every bed was drenched. Crows and kites, dead, alive and wounded, bestrewed the cricket field, and adjutants, Calcutta’s former useful scavengers, boldly came into the portico for shelter, and stalked about in dignified nonchalance. When the cyclone abated, Mr. Hatten and the senior boys went to the river side. Here were to be seen on the strand, not only wrecks of the smaller craft in hundreds but several two-masted and three-masted ships. The S.S.Thunder, on her way to China, foundered in the Bay of Bengal, and a fine, manly young fellow, Fairweather by name, a Martinière boy and third mate of the steamer, went down with her.”

Charles married Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne, the daughter of a French indigo planter from Jungypore (now Jungapur), West Bengal, at Christ Church Cathedral, Bhaugulpore (now Bhagalpur), on 24 May 1866. The “Times of India” for 7 Jun 1866 listed the marriage as “May 24th at Christ Church Bhaugulpore Charles William Hatten Esq MA of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge and Principal of La Martinière College Calcutta to Rozalie Jane Palmer fifth daughter of Joseph Maximin de Verinne Esq of Jungypore.” Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne was the daughter of Joseph Maximin de Verinne, and was born on 22 Mar 1845 at Jungypore, West Bengal. On 14 Dec 1845 she was christened at St. John’s Church, Calcutta. I haven’t found a birth record for Joseph, but on 13 Aug 1824 he married Ann Frances Wallis, who was born on 23 Jul 1806 at Cawnpore, India, the daughter of Captain W H Wallis of His Majesty’s 24^th Light Dragoons and his wife Frances. Ann's mother Frances died at Meerut in Jun 1825 and Ann was the executor of her estate. Joseph and Ann had sixteen children including Rozalie between 1825 and 1851. Joseph was one of the executors of the will of Major General Claude Martin mentioned below.

The earliest de Verinne I’ve found in India is Jacques Maxime de Verinne, born in Paris on 31 May 1736, who died at Chandernagore on 8 Aug 1801, and is buried in Chandernagore Cemetery. His tombstone inscription says: “Jacques Maxime de Verinne, décédé le 8 août 1801, à l'âge de 65 ans. Ancien agent de la Compagnie des Indes, Procureur du Roi.” [“Jacques Maxime de Verinne, deceased 8^th August 1801 at the age of 65 years. Former agent of the Indies Company, Royal Procurer.”] It looks as if Jacques came out to India in the 18^th Century as an agent of the French Indies Company and the French Crown. However, since by 1793 he was “Président du Comité National des Citoyens [President of the National Committee of Citizens]” he must have pragmatically embraced the French Revolution! (There is a rumour that with the family being minor aristocracy, other members still in France were not so fortunate and were guillotined.) Jacques had two sons, Jean Maximin de Verinne, born in 1772, who married Perrine Toinette Lefranc in 1800, and who I believe was Joseph’s father. Jacques’ other son, Claude Pierre de Verinne, born in 1778, married Marie Louise Amélie Coulon in Chandernagore on 15 May 1816. Chandernagore was a French possession until 1951, when it was incorporated into independent India.

Joseph had a brother, Charles John de Verinne (also listed as John Charles), who in 1825 married Cecelia Cherie Savi, born in Chandernagore, West Bengal, 1808, and a sister, Eliza Catherine de Verinne who married Thomas Savi (Cecelia’s brother) at St. John’s Church, Calcutta, in 1828. Both Charles and Thomas were also indigo planters. Cecelia and Thomas Savi were the children of Dr. John Angelo Savi (1765-1830), born in Elba, Italy, son of Admiral Antonio Savi of the Tuscan Navy. He trained as a surgeon, and emigrated to Chandernagore, in 1790. Dr. Savi married Elizabeth de Corderan (1774-1858), the daughter of Lieutenant - later General - André François de Corderan, who had fought against Sir Robert Clive, and they had ten children. There are several other de Verinnes listed on the India Office Family History Search site apart from children of Joseph and Charles, but I haven’t yet established a connection.

“The Richest East India Merchant: The Life and Business of John Palmer of Calcutta 1767-1836” by Anthony Webster (Boydell & Brewer, 2007)

Initially I assumed that Rozalie’s mother was called Palmer, because of Rozalie’s third name, but her surname was in fact Wallis. So where did the name Palmer come from? The answer is in a 47-page document from 1836 on the Net relating to an Appeal Court judgement for the city of Lyons, France against the East India Company, the mayor of the city of Lyons (the birthplace of Major General Claude Martin) acting on behalf of several French plaintiffs suing the executors of the will of Major General Claude Martin over non implementation of provisions including the establishment of La Martinière College, of which Charles Hatten later became Principal. Several law suits mentioned in the document have John Palmer and Joseph Maximin de Verinne as co-defendants. So, John Palmer was Joseph’s business partner! He was actually a very important figure in the business world of Calcutta, as detailed in the 2007 Boydell & Brewer book by Anthony Webster, “The Richest East India Merchant: The Life and Business of John Palmer of Calcutta 1767-1836” (Anthony Webster is Professor of History at Northumbria University, Newcastle on Tyne). Another partner is named in the same document as Joseph Quierose or Quieres, and Rozalie’s elder brother born in 1843 was named Joseph Quieres de Verinne. The document explains the connection between Joseph Maximin de Verinne and La Martinière College. (There are three La Martinière colleges in Lyons, as well as one in Lucknow, India.)

St. John's Church, Bodle Street Green, Herstmonceux, East Sussex (picture from Sussex Online Parish Clerks)

Rozalie and Charles returned almost immediately to England, where Charles was ordained deacon at Ely in 1867, and then priest in 1868. They had nine children: Mary Caroline (1868-1949), Rozalie Emmaretta (1869-1947), Evelyn Alice (1872-1934), Ada Katharine (1873-86), John Charles Le Pelley (1875-1943), Gertrude Mary (1878-1969), Arthur William (1880-1916), Dorothy Agnes Russell (1881-1925) and Wilfrid Hayley Spark (1886-1952). Rozalie and Charles' first daughter Mary Caroline was born in Barningham, Suffolk, 1868. Christopher John Hatten reminds me that Barningham was the home of the Fison family of fertiliser and agrochemicals fame - "Suffolk Roots", Dec 2016, says "James Fison (1735-1806) who married Ann Cornell established himself in Barningham. In his will, he left two windmills...and land in Barningham to his eldest son James (1759-1817)...". Chris Hatten's father David John Hatten (1916-99, see "The Family of Robert Charles Hatten" below) lived in Barningham from 1922-46. There is a memorial in Barningham church to Chris' uncle, Robert Hepworth Hatten, who died in 1944 of tuberculosis, after serving in North Africa in the 8th Army.

Charles also served in Withersfield in Suffolk before moving in 1878 to become the Rector of St. John’s Church, Bodle Street Green, Herstmonceux, East Sussex, where he remained for the rest of his clerical life. Charles’ sister, Emmaretta Louisa Hatten (1842-1910), married a fellow Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Jean Lainé Le Pelley (1840-1914), who was born in Castell, Guernsey, Channel Islands. They had no children. Jean spent most of his working life as a vicar in various parishes in Norfolk, although he officiated at the wedding of Alice Maria Hatten to Robert William Jolly in Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk, on 6 Sep 1883 (see above). Charles must have been close to his sister Emmaretta and her husband because his son born in Withersfield in 1875 was named John Charles Le Pelley Hatten (John Charles was an executor of Rev. Jean Lainé Le Pelley's will after he died in 1914). John Charles graduated from Selwyn College, Cambridge University, in 1899, and followed his father into the Church, where in 1901 he was a “Clerk in Holy Orders” at Haywards Heath, Sussex. Rozalie had sadly died in 1892 at the age of only 47, when Wilfrid was just six. In 1901 Charles was still at St. John’s, Bodle Street Green, as a widower. One daughter, Ada Katherine, had died in 1886 at the age of 13, but by 1911 two daughters, Rozalie Emmaretta and Gertrude Mary, were working as schoolteachers in Norfolk and living with their uncle, Rev. Jean Lainé Le Pelley, in Norwich, while three daughters, Mary Caroline, Evelyn Alice and Dorothy Agnes, lived with their father in Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. It doesn’t appear that any of the daughters married! I had great difficulty finding this family in Sussex in the 1911 Census until I found a Mary Caroline Halter of the right age living in Bexhill on Sea. A search for “Halter” then brought out four names - hers, Charles, Evelyn and Dorothy! Charles died in Bexhill on Sea on 3 Aug 1918, aged 80. Mary Caroline died in 1949 aged 81, Rozalie in 1947 aged 78, Evelyn in 1934 aged 61, and Dorothy in 1925 aged 43, all in Bexhill on Sea.

John Charles Le Pelley Hatten (1875-1943)

"Dallington: Six Miles from Everywhere" (1999) by acclaimed children's author Karen Bryant-Mole, which contains a lot of information about Rev. John Charles le Pelley Hatten and his family including the photo below left

Arthur William Hatten (1880-1916)

Wilfrid Hayley Spark Hatten (1886-1952)

Rev. John Charles Hatten's will dated 17 Mar 1939 includes a £50 bequest to Wilfrid, who was then living in Shanghai, China, which had been under Japanese occupation since 1937. In April 1936 Wilfrid (listed as "Hayley Spark Hatten" aged 40, although he was 50) and his daughter Josephine, now aged 19 and a secretary, sailed from London to Shanghai aboard the "SS Kashima Maru". It's odd that Josephine's age is correct on both occasions, although her parents' ages seem to be wrong. Olive was not with them on the "Kashima Maru", and subsequently turns out to have been in Singapore in 1936. Wilfrid gave a home address in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, while Josephine gave a home address in Leicester. According to the 1939 Register at Findmypast Josephine's address of “Ferndale”, 25 Fosse Road Central, Leicester, was the home of Ernest W. Smith and Winifred Smith, who Jonathan Headland says were related to the Wrights of One Ash, Quorn, Leicestershire, mentioned above. Wilfrid’s Harpenden address appears to have been some kind of private nursing home - residents there on the 1939 Register were Alice A. Lines, assistant nurse, Ellen N. Cobley, private means, plus Ethel M. Thompson and May Missenden, ward maids. A report in "The Straits Times" for 30 Aug 1936 shows Josephine living in Singapore and working as a supervisor at the Singapore Boarding Kennels, where she is pictured above left, so she must have left the ship at Singapore while Wilfrid sailed on to Shanghai.

On 23 Aug 1937, during the Battle of Shanghai between the Chinese Army and invading Japanese forces, tragedy struck this branch of the Hatten family. Josephine, who had now left Singapore and was working as a secretary in the International Settlement in Shanghai, was in or near the Sincere Co. department store on Nanking Road when it was hit by a shell, tearing away the entire front of the store and causing 250 deaths plus over 400 wounded. Who was to blame for this atrocity remains unclear, although it may have been "friendly fire" by the Chinese rather than the Japanese. Olive was living apart from Wilfrid in Singapore in 1937, and three Singapore newspapers including the "Singapore Free Press & Mercantile Adviser", 26 Aug 1937, reported the death of Josephine during this attack. A different report in "The Straits Times" for the same day says that Josephine was injured in the street outside the Palace Hotel (on the corner of Nanking Road and The Bund, but very close to the Sincere Co. department store) and was taken to the Country Hospital, where she later died. This report was given by Mrs. A. E. Hill of Shanghai, who had arrived in Singapore on the morning of 26 Aug 1937, and had been living in the same house as Josephine's father Wilfrid in Hart Road, Shanghai. A third report for the same day from "The Malay Tribune" gives the same facts as the first report in the "Free Press", and adds that Josephine had refused to be evacuated from Shanghai because she could not bear to be parted from her pet dog, which she was not able to take with her to Singapore!

Thanks to Ron Bridge, who was himself an inmate of Weihsien Camp in Weifang, for information that Wilfrid, who was a teacher at the Cathedral School, Shanghai, was interned in Shanghai by the Japanese from Feb 1943 until 5 Sep 1945, spending time at Pootung, YuYuen Road and Yangtsepu Camps. The most famous pupil at the Cathedral School at that time was the author J G Ballard (1930-2009), whose semi-autobiographical 1984 novel "Empire of the Sun", about his experiences as a boy in an internment camp in Shanghai, was filmed in 1987 by Steven Spielberg. Ballard would certainly have been taught by Wilfrid: "At the school I attended, the clergyman who ran the cathedral school in Shanghai would give lines to the boys as a punishment. They expected you to copy out, say, 20 or 30 pages from one of the school texts. But I found that rather than laboriously copying out something from a novel by Charles Dickens, it was easier if I made it up myself." J G Ballard.

Wilfrid returned to England alone after World War II and died in Bexhill on Sea aged 66 on 25 Sep 1952, the informant being his sister Gertrude Mary, at whose home he was living. Wilfrid left a poignant handwritten will dated 1949 which left all his effects to his sister Gertrude Mary, requesting that all his letters and papers should be burned, so that no-one would have the opportunity to read them. There is no mention of Olive or Josephine in his will. Olive Hatten returned to England from Singapore safely at some stage. She isn’t listed as a civilian internee of the Japanese, so she must have escaped Singapore before the occupation in 1941, maybe back to England, or perhaps to Australia. Olive isn't listed on the 1939 Register, so was not in England then. She died in Farnham, Surrey, in Jun 1958, and is described on her death certificate as the widow of Wilfrid Hayley Spark Hatten, schoolteacher. This means that Olive and Wilfrid never divorced, although they must have been estranged for her not to be mentioned in his will. Olive may have blamed Wilfrid for the death of their daughter, for convincing her to travel into danger in China.

Gertrude Mary, the last surviving Hatten from this family, died in Bexhill on Sea in 1969 at the age of 91. Her will includes a series of bequests, but none to family members. Her remaining effects, which must have included many photographs of the family, were sold to benefit three charities, and her brother John Charles' World War 1 service record, medals and field communion set turned up on eBay in the early 2000s, as mentioned above. Sadly, Tom Burnell cannot remember details of the eBay seller from whom he bought them. I have no evidence that Charles and Rozalie had any grandchildren who survived into adulthood, and therefore have no living descendants today. It's very sad that this very talented and adventurous branch of the Hatten family has died out.

An earlier version of the story of Charles William Hatten and Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne is also told in my article in "Suffolk Roots", Dec 2016.

The Savi and de Verinne Families

Keeping it in the families, Lewis Pugh Evans Pugh’s brother Griffith Humphrey (1840-1902), married Veronica’s sister, Emelia Savi Hills (1849-1938), in 1873. They too moved to Llanbadarn Fawr in Wales.

Thanks to Angela Watts, Ianthe Roper and Miles Macnair for their information and pictures, Karen Bryant-Mole, Tom Burnell of St. Mary's War and Famine Museum, Thurles, Ireland, Derek Creasey of the Sussex Online Parish Clerks web-site, Allison Caffyn of the Sussex Family History Society, Pauline Ridley of the Dallington History Group, Sarah Talmage of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Charlotte Hoare of St. John's College, Cambridge. I’d be delighted if anyone else recognises the names on this page and gets in touch. There must be photographs of these family members out there somewhere!

[Up] [Family of William Green Hatten and Sarah Anne Turner Day] [Family of George Nelson Hatten and Harriet Griffin Blomfield] [Family of Robert Charles Hatten and Mary Nunn Bishop] [Family of Rev. Charles William Hatten and Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne] [Cooper Family]

For my complete family tree, see here.

If you have any more information or pictures to share please contact me: alanfraser87@gmail.com. You will be credited for every picture included. The photos of Merle Oberon above are copyright, but used here on a non-commercial basis according to the principle of fair use.